A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said Muslims he had spoken to this morning were "jumpy and nervous". Inayat Bunglawala said: "I have just had one phone call saying 'What if I was carrying a rucksack?'.

" We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot to kill policy."

He said in the current atmosphere Muslims were very afraid and other people were looking at them in a very suspicious manner."

Edward Teague tells me that in Rochdale, Friday is market day for the Asian community and the local market is normally a bussle of activity as people stock up for the weekend but the normally crowded streets are pretty much deserted. Well, if you are an Asian today in Britain, would you take a walk?

"I saw an Asian guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers.

" One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him."

Eyewitness Accounts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4706913.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4706787.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1534138,00.html